Dr. Williams is changing the way we understand and treat mental disorders. She is developing a model for Neuroscience Informed Precision Mental Health for understanding mental disorders as disruptions in brain circuits that govern emotional and cognitive functions. The goal is to use this model to accelerate the translation of neuroscience insights into better diagnosis and treatment choices that are tailored to each person. After first graduating, Dr. Williams worked with patients experiencing serious mental disorders and who had been hospitalized for many years. This experience transformed the trajectory of her career. She went on to complete her PhD in 1996 with a British Council scholarship for study at Oxford University.​Dr. Williams develops Neuroscience Informed Precision Mental Health as a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and as Director of her interdisciplinary lab, the “PanLab”. She also leads department-wide initiatives in Precision Psychiatry as Associate Chair of Research Strategy and as the Chair of the major labs focused on clinical translational neuroscience. She has a joint position at the Palo Alto VA where she is Director of education and dissemination, focused on traumatic stress. Dr. Williams first came to Stanford as a visiting Professor in 2011. At that time she was leading a multi-site international study to identify brain biomarkers for depression and antidepressant response. She was thrilled to join the Stanford faculty in 2013. Prior to this time she was foundation Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry at the Sydney Medical School and Director of the interdisciplinary Sydney Brain Dynamics Center for 12 years. Her scholarly contributions to the field include over 250 peer-reviewed publications.

Learning points:An introduction to key principles for one approach to developing a neuroscience-informed psychiatry model

Learn about brain imaging findings that may inform treatment decisions for depression

Learn about genetic and environmental predictors of treatment outcomes for depression